Episode 33 - Taken to Church: The CIA and the Year of Intelligence

On Episode 33 we turn our attentions back to the CIA and pick up where we left off in Episode 31. Joined by the University of Reading’s Dafydd Townley, we whizz through the CIA’s successes and failures in the 1950s and 1960s, when the agency was given free rein by Congress to do as it pleased without questioning. With the Vietnam War and the Watergate Scandal fuelling public distrust in American institutions, however, it was only logical that the CIA – for so long shrouded in mystery – would come under the microscope. In 1975, three separate investigations were launched into the CIA, with the notable being the Church Committee, that raised new and troubling questions about the nation’s premier intelligence gathering vehicle. In this episode of American History Too! we investigate the Committee’s findings and dig deeper into what would become known as the ‘Year of Intelligence’. We’ll be back next month with an episode that will overlap with Black History Month. Until then, thanks for again listening! Mark and Malcolm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices